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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
Gibbon's ‘translation’ of Ammianus' characterisation of the Roman nobles, the original passages of the Res Gestae, and an analysis of the detailed reliance of the English on the Latin.
(a) The Decline and Fall III. 202–11. The greatness of Rome (such is the language of the historian) was founded on the rare, and almost incredible, alliance of virtue and of fortune. The long period of her infancy was employed in a laborious struggle against the tribes of Italy, the neighbours and enemies of the rising city. In the strength and ardour of youth, she sustained the storms of war; carried her victorious arms beyond the seas and the mountains; and brought home triumphal laurels from every country of the globe. At length, verging towards old age, and sometimes conquering by the terror only of her name, she sought the blessings of ease and tranquillity. The Venerable City, which had trampled on the necks of the fiercest nations; and established a system of laws, the perpetual guardians of justice and freedom; was content, like a wise and wealthy parent, to devolve on the Caesars, her favourite sons, the care of governing her ample patrimony. A secure and profound peace, such as had been once enjoyed in the reign of Numa, succeeded to the tumults of a republic: while Rome was still adored as the queen of the earth; and the subject nations still reverenced the name of the people, and the majesty of the senate.
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